Now that I have lived in the Washington, DC, area for over a year, these are my favorite restaurants. They are not in any particular order.
The hamburger meat at Franklin’s is locally sourced and tastes like real meat.
Franklin’s, Hyattsville, MD: American food in an old mercantile. The restaurant owns several shops and a tiki bar. It’s a whole day outing. Serves locally sourced meat.
Ruthie’s All Day, Arlington, VA: Southern food. They have excellent “white sauce” wings. Outdoor seating.
Woodmont Grille, Bethesda, MD: American food. Dark wood and they ask you not to speak too loud. Classy place.
Penny Royal Station. Mt. Rainer, MD: American food. Another secret place.
Caphe Banh Mi, Alexandria, VA: Vietnamese food. Serve banh mi with liver pate. One of the few places that still serve have this “classic” style.
Mandu Erang, Annandale, VA: Korean food. It’s an old school place in a tiny house in the middle of a parking lot.
Mum Aroi, Baileys Crossroads, VA: Thai food. Best authentic place we’ve found so far. “Mum aroi” is “it’s tasty” in Thai.
Le Diplomate, Washington, DC: French food. Busy, but the cheese balls and the seafood tower are worth the crowds.
L’Ardente, Washington, DC: Italian food. Best “cesare” salad evah!
IndoChen, Alexandria, VA: Indian Chinese food. Stick with the Indian food. The chicken breast marinated in yogurt is a weekly food for me.
Y Noodles, Falls Church: a new place that serves authentic (no tea served here!) spicy noodles and other Chinese food from Chongqin.
Cielo Rojo, Takoma Park, Maryland: High class, world class, cosmopolitan, Mexican food. Also includes a vegan menu. Really good food.
If you can find 14 friends, you can book a private tour. Otherwise, just wander around and read the labels, then google more info… and repeat. This exhibit shows how many American women, artists, dancers, lesbians, African Americans, writers, and freedom lovers moved to Paris to find the freedom to be themselves.
Learn about Josephine Baker, Gertrude Stein, and many other women who were trailblazers in the women’s movement.
This exhibit runs through February 2025 and entrance is free at the National Portrait Gallery.
Here is part three of the where I got to in my draft book about the history of America told through immigrant food. This is about three sisters.
For the next chapter in American history, we jump a century or so. After Columbus, there were other groups who attempted to conquer the “new land” of the Americas. Columbus had sailed for Spain.
Captain John Smith should get more play in American history as he made a lot of it. On May 14, 1607, he established Jamestown in Virginia. This was the first town of European settlers in the Americas to survive to this day. The earlier attempt at Roanoke failed in 1593. There had been attempts to settle in parts of the coast along what is Virginia today. The “Lost Colony” of Roanoke is a mystery. The 100 settlers left there probably were starving and assimilated with the natives who lived in the area. From 1492 to 1586, there were bloody battles between the natives who lived in America and the privateers/pirates/buckaneers who attempted to claim the land for their kings and queens. They were also looking for gold. When the rumor started that “Eldorado” or the land of gold existed, the race was on. But that is a story about South America. Maybe the subject of a different book.
Some of these explorers include Giovanni da Verrazzano who landed on the American coast in 1524 and in 1578, Queen Elizabeth I granted permission for Sir Humphrey Gilbert to conquer lands “unclaimed by Christian kingdoms.” When he died at sea, his charter was taken over by his brother and half brother, Sir Walter Raleigh. There are lots of myths about Sir Walter Raleigh and it makes for imaginative films. Interestingly, he could not leave the queen’s side, so all his “conquering” was done through other men. Roanoke Colony was founded in 1685. In 1586, Sir Francis Drake, returned to England after visiting Roanoke. It was at this time that tobacco, maize, and potatoes to the English court.
But what were the Americans eating? The natives were eating the richness of the land they lived in. They ate mainly corn, beans, and squash. These three are called the “three sisters” but the natives also fished and hunted. The natives in the first encounters with the English were part of the larger Algonquian peoples.
The natives ate many foods that are rare today (porpoise, whale, seal, moose, beaver, and other animals that are still part of the native diet) but they also ate things that we non-natives also eat such as strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, nuts, scallops, mussels, clams, crabs, trout, bass, flounder, and cod.
The three sisters, maize, beans, and squash (gourds) were planted together and formed part of the mythology of several native cultures including the Seneca Nation.
The Iroquois and the Cherokee called corn, bean, and squash the three sisters’ because they nurture each other like family when planted together. These agriculturalists placed corn in small hills planting beans around them and interspersing squash throughout of the field. Beans naturally absorb nitrogen from the air and convert it to nitrates, fertilizing the soil for the corn and squash. In return, they are supported by winding around the corn stalks. The squash leaves provide ground cover between the corn and beans, preventing weeds from taking over the field. These three plants thrive together better than when they are planted alone.
These are not the food of immigrants. These are the foods of people who were already here. Of course, the immigrants took on the foods that the indigenous people taught them about, told in a dramatic story that is celebrated as Thanksgiving. The Puritans arrived famously on Plymouth Rock in 1620. Modern day America is based on a group who found England to be too lax. No wonder America is so puritanical. But I digress. These puritans are why Americans celebrates Thanksgiving (in Canada it is on the second Monday in October). Thanksgiving in the United States is a big deal. It’s the biggest holiday.
Next time, I may try to make a three sisters salad.
Continuing the history of American food… from last time…
“1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue.”
In the port city of Genoa, as a young boy, Christopher Columbus, helped out at his father’s cheese stand. When Christopher was about 14 years old, he began an apprenticeship with a merchant family. This lead to his career at sea. He moved to Portugal as an adult and eventually convinced Queen Isabel and King Ferdinand of Spain to fund his search for a westward route to the Orient — source of the expensive spices, including pepper. Once Columbus saw gold, he wanted gold.
The three ships that Columbus captained were famously the Nina, Pinta, and the Santa Maria. Actually, they were the Santa Clara, the actual name of the Pinta is unknown, and the Santa Maria. The Nina was the nickname given in honor of the owner, Juan Nino. The Santa Maria’s nickname was the “Gallega” as the boat was built in Galicia. And the Pinta actual means painted one or prostitute.
Whatever one thinks of Columbus, scholars consider his “discovery” of America to be the start of the modern era.
The massive exchange in flora and fauna is called the Columbian Exchange.
Today, we think of Genoa and think of pesto and pasta. More broadly, of Italy, we think of tomatoes and pasta. Here are some of the things that did not exist in Europe at the time: the tomato, the potato, maize/corn, vanilla, cacao, the turkey, and tobacco. And these are some of the things that went FROM the old world to the new world: citrus, apples, bananas, mango, onion, coffee, wheat, and rice. Can you imagine anywhere in the Americas without bananas, rice, and beans?
The United States was not a country at this point. Columbus claimed what he found for Spain. Columbus ate what sailors ate, from dried meats, fish, beans, hardtack (a dried bread), olive oil, wine, cheese, nuts, and it was noted that he was fond of figs. Often to purify foods, they would use vinegar. Columbus landed in what is modern day Caribbean. He noted in his log that the natives ate fish and “bread which tasted exactly as if it were made of chestnuts.” This is an interesting description because in the north of Italy where Columbus was from, they eat, even today, lots of chestnuts. They even make pasta from chestnuts. Chestnuts are easily found whereas wheat is not as easy a product. Perhaps the bread that Columbus had in Hispaniola was made of sweet potato and cassava, two of the mainstays of the Taino Indians who lived on Hispaniola, the island that is today Haiti and the Dominican Republic. This is where Columbus landed.
Columbus would be familiar with the texture of products made from chestnut and sweet potato bread would be similar in sweetness and texture. Today, most people think of the American sweet potato as a bright orange thing used for casserole or pie. It is associated with the South and the African American communities who descended from slavery. There are sweet potatoes that are not orange and do not have as sweet a flavor. The texture is also harder and less like pumpkin. Speaking of pumpkin pie, Jacques Pepin said that growing up in France, he only thought of pumpkin/gourd as a savory food ingredient but once he moved to America, he found out how great it was as a sweet ingredient.
New world foods for sale in Italy.
The Europeans were accustomed to eating carbohydrates in the form of gruel, pottage, pasta, or bread. Columbus was accustomed to a mediterranean diet. On his second voyage to the Americas, Columbus brought things he thought he could eat like wheat, rice, barley, oats, coffee, sugar cane, citrus, melons, pigs, sheep, goats, chickens, beef cattle, and other agricultural animals like horses. (As an aside, when horses first arrived with the conquistadors in South America, the natives had never seen them before. If you find yourself in the cathedral in Cusco, Peru, take a look at the horses in the painting. They look look like llamas as the artists had never seen horses before so they painted them like llamas.)
Can you imagine American food without fried chicken and watermelon?
Columbus and his men enjoyed some of the new world foods immediately (such as a corn maize drink called atole which one can still find, or the more well known horchata) but others took many years to become common place foods in Europe. The most famous is the potato which was considered poisonous for many years.
So when America started as a country, it was not one. It was a few islands touched by Columbus and an unknown sphere claimed for the Spanish King and Queen. This map is from Wikipedia but it shows where Columbus may have set foot in Hispaniola and Cuba (Haiti/Dominican Republic and Cuba) but there was no United States yet.
Columbus made four trips to the new world but the exchange of products he started changed history forever. With the arrival of the Europeans, millions of native Americans died from diseases that they had never encountered before. Those first Indians met by Columbus, the Taino, also all died out. The Indians are called Indians because Columbus wanted to think he made it to India, the source of spices, or so he thought.
In 1513, Juan Ponce de Leon, who had sailed with Columbus, landed in Florida. St. Augustine in Florida is considered to be the oldest continuously inhabited European settled place in America. Ponce de Leon was the first governor of Puerto Rico. He also discovered the Gulf Stream. According to myth, he was searching for the fountain of youth, but that is most likely a myth. Not much is known about what he ate but as he was part of the Columbian Exchange, I assume he ate what Columbus ate.
The foods of the Americas are integral to the modern foods of America from corn, French fries, ketchup, guacamole, but not apple pie. We will get to that in a few hundred years.
In 2023, I moved to Alexandria, Virginia, a historic old town across the river from Washington, DC, the US capital. As I scarfed Vietnamese pho, drunken Thai noodles, Korean barbecue, Taiwanese bubble tea, Russian blinis, Mennonite milk, Neapolitan pizza, mini crepes from Hue, Vietnam, hamburgers charred perfectly, Greek salads, Lao sausage, Spanish tapas, Peruvian rotisserie chicken, Salvadoran pupusas, Uyghar spaghetti, New England meatloaf, clotted cream from England, and dim sum from China… I realized how much I knew about the diverse foods that make up American food but how little I knew about American history. I decided to write a book about the history of America. Through immigrant foods. Then, I realized, this was too vast a topic to undertake in one book, plus I have other things to do in my life… so instead I decided to write about the foods of early American history — from 1492 to 1792. Then, I got to chapter three and realized that I was not going to get anywhere near finished in a year. So instead, I’ll post what I wrote on this blog.
Vietnamese food
Some would say that the history of the USA should go back to the land bridge from Siberia when the ancestors of the native Americans, indigenous people, first nations, walked to the Americas. Some might say that the Vikings should be included in a history of America. Leif Eriksson was the first white European to set foot on North America, around the year 1,000 CE. Five centuries before Columbus, who never set foot on North America. Leif did not influence American food history. Some say that a history of America should include the Pacific Islanders who canoed to Hawaii a thousand years ago. For this book about the melting pot of American foods, I will start with 1492. This is when the bounty of what Christopher Columbus found in the Americas entered the European lexicon and mouths. Why European? Victors write the history and the Europeans were the invaders of America for several centuries.
I will start somewhere easy as the United States of America is a young-ish country so we only need to go back to 1450 CE (current era or AD). The USA did not come into existence until 1775 but for ease of history, I will refer to it as the USA even from before 1775.
Next time, I’ll start at 1492 when Columbus sailed the ocean blue. Christopher Columbus was not Italian. Italy didn’t exist as a country until a century after the United States became a country.
Taco Ssam surrounds the Pho and Grill place — they have a restaurant and take out on either side of the grill
Living in the DC area, I rarely go to a hole-in-the-wall. Even the famous ones are… famous. For example, Blue & White Carry Out in Alexandria is still a small “shack” but it is well known. And some say the prices are getting a bit too big for their britches.
Inside the grill. Lots of room.
Often, when invited to happy hours, the location is in DC, super crowded, and the appetizers cost $20. Recently, I went to a much less fancy happy hour. Actually there are two places, cantinas, in the Culmore strip mall. The one plays latin music at a slightly lower level. There were mostly guys enjoying a pail of 10 beers before going home… one guy was asleep on the table. But, no one bothered us.
Inside Taco Ssam.
The prices were good too. One place is called a grill and the other is a Korean taco chain (they have two locations). I’d go back. A the grill, they have pupusas from El Salvador and pho soup from Vietnam. No, it’s not like your Vietnamese grandma’s soup. But they figured that they could make a clear soup and their customers like it. America is a melting pot, remember?
Happy hour prices are a bit cheaper than the regular prices but not by much.
I’ll continue my search. Recently, I went to Table Talk, a local diner in Alexandria. It was really old school. But not a hole in the wall.
If you want a small town feel, a historic old European city feel, and still be near a big city, then you will understand why Old Town Alexandria keeps getting voted as one of the best small towns in America. It is really cute. It has free busses and a free trolley from the subway stop. Also, it is on a subway line that connects to two airports.
I just like how quaint it is (oh, and I love the dairy sold at the farmers market — the market is from 1753 and is the oldest continuous farmers market in America. It is every Saturday from 7-noon). Several of the blocks in the heart of the waterfront area have been made pedestrian only. Many restaurants line these blocks and it is a pleasant place to eat, socialize, and people watch. The boardwalk/quay is nicely made and there are both toilets, drinking fountains, and benches all within easy reach.
If you visit, try going during the day and visit the Torpedo Factory, an old factory turned into artist studios and shops. There are also many tours of Old Town, covering history, food, and ghost.
The streets are tree lined and a few still have the original cobblestones. This is an old city so you may need to walk arm in arm on the uneven sidewalks.
My plan was to visit all the farmers markets in the greater DC area. But there are too many of them. Most are now under one collective, freshfarm.org. If you want to find a Fresh Farm market near you, then check out their handy calendar.
Old Town Alexandria market is in the main square of Old Town.
Alexandria Old Town Farmers Market: is the oldest continuously running farmers market in America from 1753 (which is before America was a country). It is every Saturday morning, 7-12noon, all year round, rain, snow, sun, and wind.
Alexandria North: is an independent market on Thursday afternoons and Sunday mornings.
Georgetown: is only June-October on Saturday mornings.
Dupont Circle market
Dupont Circle: is all year. Part of Farm Fresh. It is on Sunday mornings and includes many restaurant stalls and non-food stalls.
Bethesda: apparently this one is one of the few that has remained independent. It is on Sunday mornings. Apparently they also have a women farmers market on certain days as well.
It is often “bizarre foods” that are old traditions that no longer are available. In Italy, people asked me if I had tried “Casu martzu” which is maggot cheese. No, it’s illegal and I do not need to have maggot larvae jumping at my face while trying some cheese. I am not Andrew Zimmern. Like most of us, I was raised to try everything one is offered. But, I think that is different when offered things that are a bit on the special side. Often, I think that people are pulling one’s leg. When the situation is legit, then I will try it. Unless my gag reflex tells me not to. So I have tried moose nose and it was okay, but I was not offered the seal blubber because I was not of high enough rank. I have also tried to eat steamed aloe vera, but could not because it was worse than snot.
This is in Annandale, Virginia.
Other odd foods I have heard of are “virgin boy piss eggs” in China where eggs are marinated in urine. Apparently this was done with horse urine in Korea in the old days. Speaking of Korea, the Koreans have outlawed eating dog. Apparently there are parts of China that have banned eating cats and dogs. In several places in the world, I have seen unfortunate sign juxtaposition of Korean restaurants and veterinary practices. Was this oblivious, on purpose either from malice or humor? Whatever the reason, this will, with time, disappear as the people slowly realize that the Koreans no longer eat dog.
This is in Rome, Italy.
Because of the connection with Koreans and eating dog, I was a bit surprised when I saw what I thought was an oven for dogs… but it was a specialized dog dryer — a sign of the opposite end of the spectrum for dogs — from meat to pet.
In a world of territorial conflicts, there is a quintessentially American space that is sought and claimed — the front porch. In America, having a front porch is a sign of pride. A place where one can sit outside and enjoy the evening, the fresh air, the sunset — whatever it is that makes you feel like the king of your castle.
You can read some of the history of the front porch here. Basically, the porch is the in between space, a greeting space for the house, a place to cool off during hot weather, and a social space that is not all the way in the house but also not on the street. Sometimes called a deck, patio, stoop, or veranda, the front porch is something else.
From the 19th century until World War II, houses had a porch, including upstairs (often for sleeping outside during the hot nights). Then air conditioning became much more affordable and house design focused more on backyards. Modern houses are often built with a porch for nostalgia but people do not seem to sit out on their front porches anymore.
It makes me admire those who still insist on having a front porch, no matter the size.
Apparently a cookbook club is the thing to do. I am part of one that was recently started by one of my social friends.
Cover of the cookbook we cooked from this month.Cornbread.
Luckily the rules are not too strict (some clubs require evaluating the recipes and other rules. Read about how to set up here or if you don’t live in that area or want to find one to join, look at this site) at the Capital Cookbook Club. We get one cookbook to choose from, tell what recipe we are making, and then bring it to the meal on the agreed upon date.
The spread of bean salad, crab salad, peach glaze chicken, cornbread, potato salad, beans, and drinks. There were two desserts.
I do not like cooking anymore so I found a simple way to make a chicken dish. Others had made more effort. It was a lovely evening socializing while eating dinner. In honor of Juneteenth, we made recipes from Watermelon & Red Birds by Nicole A. Taylor, a James Beard winner.
